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Posted on 05.16.08 by Stephen Covington @ 4:21 pm
We’ve heard a lot about Ron Paul in the last year…huge rallies, fanatical supporters, oddly place highway banners. Paul has run as a Republican in the primaries, and has so far not given a clear indication as to how, or whether, he will run in the general election. A candidate is now vying for the Libertarian Party nomination, and it’s not Paul. Bob Barr, an ex-GOPer and former Congressman from Georgia, has announced that he is seeking top billing by the LP. This is obviously a source of consternation for the McCain camp - it means further vote siphoning, another alternative, and a potential headache should Barr attempt to split the GOP on issues ranging from the Iraq War to McCain’s record on campaign finance reform. More importantly, what does it mean for Ron Paul? Paul depends on attention from Libertarians and sympathetic elements of the Republican Party to make his splash. If he eventually decides to run as an Independent, this will be at least somewhat of a diversion from his efforts. After all the hype, could this represent the slow sputtering out of the Paul campaign? Filed under: Campaign 2008 and John McCain and Ron Paul and Third Parties Comments: 18 Comments |
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Posted on 05.15.08 by Lisa Mancini @ 2:12 am
“Sweetie,” huh? Good thing McCain didn’t say this…cause you know if he did, it’d be string-up-the-white-man time. Yep. Filed under: Barack Obama and Campaign 2008 and Democrats and Media Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.14.08 by Stephen Covington @ 4:16 am
Out where the blue ticks bay and the cardinals sing, where mountaineers roam and the banjos twang, Hillary Clinton has won what might be one of her last few significant victories ahead of similar small states like Montana and South Dakota in June. West Virginia has gone to Clinton. Yep, West Virginia, a fairly conservative state which wouldn’t vote for Barack Obama even if he paid everyone with pure gold ingots and delicious snacks. WV is pretty heavily Democrat at the state level, but national elections are another tale entirely - Bush won in 2000 and 2004. Clinton probably didn’t even have to don a pair of overalls to pull this one off. It doesn’t change the fact that she’s still going to get smashed. I would say it’s time to hang it up, but it can’t hurt to have her keep slinging at Obama. Filed under: Barack Obama and Campaign 2008 and Democrats and Election Results and Hillary Clinton Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.07.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 2:26 pm
The media is trying to build some sort of myth about unhappy Republican voters based on yesterday’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. In each contest, presumtive nominee John McCain won 3 out of 4 votes that were cast… with the remainder split up among Mick Huckabee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Alan Keyes. The Drudge Report announced the following headline last night…
Then the popular Politics1.com picked up on the numbers…
What do those figures mean? Is a fifth or more of the party unhappy with McCain as the nominee? Could this mean disaster come November? No. It’s a media myth. These are normal results. Once the nominee has been selected, turnout in primaries drops like a rock. The people who do turn out tend to be uphappy with the establishment and eager to cast a protest vote. On May 23, 2000 the Idaho Republican primary gave only 73% of the vote to George W. Bush, 19% voted for Alan Keyes, and 7% voted for None of the Above. Similar results in Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakotka, and other late primary states. These results are completely in line with history and suggest absolutely nothing about John McCain’s ability to unite Republicans. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and John McCain Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 05.06.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 11:27 pm
To the delight of most Republicans, it appears that Hillary Clinton could win a very narrow victory in Indiana tonight. Early returns put her up by more than 10%, but as the numbers keep coming in that will narrow. However, CNN’s exit polls show her with about a 2-3% lead over Barack Obama. That may be a sign that she’s going to pull this one off — but just barely. It doesn’t save her or change the dynamic of the race very much, but it does hold off the idea of a knock-out punch from Obama. Clinton will live to fight another day, and the race will go on. No word yet from North Carolina, but the leaked exit polls show an easy win for Obama. If it’s a double-digit defeat, that’s going to be hard to spin for Hillary. We’ll just have to wait and see how things unfold the rest of the night. Filed under: Barack Obama and Campaign 2008 and Election Results and Hillary Clinton Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.06.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 6:45 pm
Could tonight’s Democratic primaries in North Carolina and Indiana spell the end of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the White House? Maybe. Final Zogby polling suggests that Clinton is behind by 14 points in North Carolina and 2 points in the essential Indiana contest. Now, I suppose that North Carolina can be partially written off as a case of “demographics” - which is her code word for a state with a high African-American population. But an Obama win in Indiana would all but end the race tonight. If Obama wins both states, there’s really only one good strategy left. The Clinton campaign should shift everything it has into a last-ditch attempt to win (and win BIG) in West Virginia next week. It wouldn’t help her much in the delegate race, but the symbolic victory would give her the ability to go into immediate negotiations for the Vice-Presidential spot on the ticket. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Hillary Clinton Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.01.08 by Stephen Covington @ 3:42 pm
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Jeremiah Wright seems to be the Monica Lewinsky media circus clown of the moment. Isn’t there an actual election going on…with issues and stuff? Apparently that’s not exciting enough for serious discussion. We’ve given Wright his 15 minutes of fame, and clearly he takes to the limelight well. He’s obviously a polarizing figure, people have made up their minds about him, and there’s nothing more that can be said that would add substance. Furthermore, he’s completely irrelevant to the actual election. Filed under: Barack Obama and Campaign 2008 and Media Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 04.27.08 by Stephen Covington @ 4:08 pm
Recent campaign expenditure reports show that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have spent a combined $110 million vying for the Democratic nomination. Obama alone is near $70 million as compared to Kerry’s $20 million in 2004, and is outpacing Clinton 2-1 in television spots in the key states of North Carolina and Indiana, which will hold primaries on May 6. Obama already stands to outdo Clinton in North Carolina, which has significant numbers of liberal voters in specific enclaves, and a large black population. Areas around Raleigh have seen significant growth in the last decade as younger voters have moved into the state seeking jobs in the “research triangle” region that focuses on the high-tech and bioscience sectors. Indiana, although politically dominated by Democrats, is fairly conservative and has a long history as a “red state” in Presidential general elections, which could play in favor of Clinton. Her convincing win in Pennsylvania shows that she is still relevant in the eyes of conservative Democrats who haven’t gone over to the Obama camp. Indiana could either reinforce this, or be a coup for Obama if he can garner more of the traditionalists in the party. An Obama win in NC and Clinton taking Indiana would allow Hillary to hang on, but barely. Filed under: Barack Obama and Campaign 2008 and Democrats and Hillary Clinton Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.26.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 5:28 pm
Pastor Chuck Baldwin, and former 2004 VP candidate, won the Constitution Party’s nomination for Presidential today. He defeated former Ambassador Alan Keyes by a margin of 384 to 126 delegates. This is not much of a surprise, considering that Howard Phillips, the founder of the Constitution Party, gave a speech to the convention yesterday blasting Keyes as a political opportunist. Keyes seems like the kind of guy who doesn’t take losing very well. It wouldn’t surprise me if we now see him try and form his own party, run as an independent, or go after another nomination - maybe from the nearly-defunct Reform Party. No word yet on who the Constitution Party will nominate for Vice-President. Filed under: Alan Keyes and Campaign 2008 and Third Parties Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 04.20.08 by Stephen Covington @ 10:53 pm
Arizona Senator John McCain filed a report today showing that his campaign has $11.6 million in the bank. This is still significantly less than Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have been locked in an extremely competitive primary. There has been some discussion about McCain accepting public funds, a step which might prevent having to deal with quite so many of the heavily-demonized donors and lobbyists and also jive with McCain’s preference towards campaign finance reform. However, it may also rankle free-market conservatives who constitute a significant portion of the base. McCain may have a decent chance of selling conservatives on the idea if he starts early. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and John McCain Comments: 1 Comment |
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